GPS World, March 2016

MOBILEUPDATE Ford to Triple Autonomous Vehicle Investment F ord took center stage at the 2016 Mobile World Congress for a series of announcements CEO Mark Fields unveiled the new Kuga SUV and confirmed that Fords SYNC 3 connectivity technology is coming to Europe SYNC 3 allows drivers to control audio navigation and climate functions plus connected smartphones using simple conversational voice commands Fields also said Ford commits to tripling its engineering investment in semi autonomous vehicle technologies as the company continues to expand its Ford Smart Mobility plan Fields discussed Fords transition from an automotive company to an auto and a mobility company through Ford Smart Mobility the companys plan to be a leader in connectivity mobility autonomous vehicles customer experience and data and analytics As we look to the future it is clear we are on the cusp of a revolution in mobility from car sharing to autonomous driving to the customer experience Fields said Technology and innovation provide us with the opportunity to address these trends and to make peoples lives better by changing the way the world moves The Kuga will offer several new technologies and updates including Fords new SYNC 3 communications and entertainment system and innovative driver assistance technologies The Kuga has hands free perpendicular parking an enhanced version of the Active City Stop collision avoidance system an adaptive front lighting system and intelligent all wheel drive Fords drive toward a fully autonomous consumer car includes rolling out traffic jam assist and fully active park assist in the next three years Traffic Jam Assist helps the driver with steering braking and acceleration in heavily congested traffic situations on motorways Fully Active Park Assist helps drivers by steering and controlling the transmission throttle and brake to seamlessly pull into a parking spot at the touch of a button Semi autonomous technologies already introduced by Ford include Pre Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection a camera and radar based system that detects vehicles and people in the road ahead and Intelligent Speed Limiter which could help prevent drivers from exceeding speed limits and potentially from incurring costly speeding penalties Ford is seeking to deliver autonomous capability that does not require driver input At this level of capability autonomous vehicles will likely be offered first in climates that support optimal sensor performance and in areas that have been mapped in high resolution 3D Ford has tested fully autonomous vehicles in winter weather including snow For more news from the Mobile World Congress which took place Feb 22 25 in Barcelona Spain see pages 17 and 45 Ford CEO Mark Fields discusses at MWC the companys move to fully autonomous vehicles WERE HIRING ENGINEERS Swif Navigaton is looking for outstanding engineers to push the state of the art in satellite navigaton technology Help make high accuracy positoning ubiquitous across a wide variety of industries and applicatons for UAVs robotcs and autonomous transportaton Learn more and apply at htps jobs lever co swif nav Compettve salary benefts equity Open vacaton policy In SF close to public transport MARCH 2016 WWW GPSWORLD COM GPS WORLD 43